I’m not really a people person. I kinda like people, and often enjoy spending time with them – even strangers – but I am really just too shy in most situations. My friends find this hard to believe, because once I know someone I really crawl out of my shell.

Every now and again, I will place myself into a social situation with strangers to try and conquer my shyness and most of the time, I will end up sitting quietly in a corner, observing, until right at the end.

Today, again, was one of those days. I attended a meet-up with strangers – women, to be more precise – and found it hard to strike up conversations with those around me. Mostly, I am never sure what to say or how anything I say would be received. It is not like my interests are so different to those around me – books, movies, media, online activities, gardening – there must be something there to talk about?

Maybe it isn’t shyness. Maybe it is utter self-absorption instead. So wrapped up in my own world that I am convinced there is no space for others.

Maybe I should just get over myself.

I was sitting reading in the sun that chilly July afternoon, watching the tortoise out of the corner of my eye. The cats were sprawled out, belly up, absorbing the thin sunlight.

I could hear the stray bees humming as they flit from one purple flower to another on the rosemary next to me, the bamboo wind chimes gently knocking in the breeze and Kate Bush wailing from a nearby house.

(image source)

In our house, we have different lukes where liquids are concerned. We have:

• luke cold: it was warm once upon a time, and one can just detect it with your tongue
• luke warm: a perfect blend between cold and hot to make the liquid in question perfectly drinkable.
• luke hot: steam’s rising, only for the iron-cast mouthed.
• luke skywalker: should be hot, but isn’t

Sweet potato, as it turns out, is nothing like potato. I knew this, of course, because I had tasted it before. But I thought, possibly, in the cooking process, there may be some similarities. I could not have been more wrong.

I do love that purple colour on my vegetables. I think the purple vegetables have more fun than the others.

I guess I have an oral fixation, because I have been obsessed with food since I quit smoking. Oh, I loved food before, but now I simply cannot think of anything else. Maybe it is time to find a new obsession – any suggestions?